Road Trip - Dia Uno

After leaving my family, house, neighbors, friends, shop and Utah behind, the Land Rover rolled into Phoenix at about 2:30am after a 14 hour drive. I left about 3 hours later than I would have liked and the possibility of 4 surfboards flying off the truck proved more nerve wracking than anything else. As a result, I didn't really get to decompress much. Dillon, our Retriever, on the other hand did great. On Dia Dos I will be picking up supplies and my buddy, John, at the airport and starting to drive south.

Cramming

How do you fit an entire shop and supplies into a Land Rover Discovery with a copilot, 4 surfboards, rocket box and a full grown Golden Retriever along for the ride? Too much stuff and too little time. I'm not really sure but some things will have to stay behind and be repurchased once I get settled. I'll be traveling south to Phoenix first and picking up a long time friend who will copilot on this portion of the adventure as well as some critical supplies for working down there. Hopefully customs won't give me too much of a hassle about the amount of suppies I'll have with me. My real concern is the total amount of stuff, tools and supplies, I'll have with me and whether or not it will exceed the allowable dollar value I can transport across the border without an import agent. I'm sure the stress level will increase the closer I get to the crossing in Nogales. But for now, the stress level can't get much worse.

A Send Off Fiesta

The neighbors on our street in Park City, Aspen Lane, put together a little "Fiesta" this evening. It's hard to leave such a great group of people. A special street for sure but I'm sure we'll have visitors from "The Hood" this winter. Gracias Amigos!

SUP=Stand Up Paddleboard

One of the things at the top of our list is to become proficient surfers. I consider myself a decent athlete but the ability to longboard has absolutely eluded me. I am flat out terrible. So, Ashley and I will be investing in our first Stand Up Paddleboards. Stand up paddling or "SUP'ing" has ancient roots but has taken off globally. With modern materials and design, SUP'ing lets even the novice get out on the water and enjoy touring the coastline, meandering down a river or stream, paddling around a reservoir, canal or even pond. The boards are generally big and stable.

We both tried SUP'ing for the first time in March of 2011 and we both enjoyed it. I even caught a few waves for the first time ever. Ashley likes SUP'ing for the workout and just to get a different perspective of the coast and I like it for the same reasons as well as being able to keep up a little better with my skilled surfing friends.

Items Completed

The amount of things one must do on a daily basis never seems to end. Add the fact that we are packing up our house and moving to another country altogether just makes the list seam insurmountable. The most progress so far has been made on the family and home front. All the grandparents have finally been informed of our planned adventure. The reactions ranged from "sounds incredible" to "when can we come visit?" to "how long is this going to go on?" to "call me, we need to discuss this". All in all, at the end of the day the grandparents have been generally if not mostly supportive. The other challenge was to rent the house in Park City. Our home is not the grandest or the nicest compared to many homes in PC or even on our own street but we love it and it is ours. Leaving will be difficult but we feel we have found a family who will enjoy and take care of the place. So, the extended family is on board, the house is rented and Ashley and the kids have plane tix for the 1st of October. I, on the other hand, get to spend 4 days driving our newly tuned Land Rover down with work tools, supplies, surfboards, our dog Dillon and my good buddy, John. John and his wife, Amy own a fantastic two bedroom rental named Casa Ava

in Sayulita. John has made the trip before and it will be good to have someone to ride shotgun and know more about border proceedures, driving in Mexico and where to stay etc. Just over 3 weeks until I hit the road. Lots more to do.

The Word is Out and Spreading

It started with the family and then the neighbors and will continue out to the friends...we are moving. Virtually across the board, the response has been supportive. "I wish I could do that", "What an experience", "You guys will have such an awesome time", "You've got balls, that's for sure but WOW". The follow up questions is always "When can I come visit?". What people need to realize is that this will be "home" for us. We will need to work, get things done, make new friends and connections, grocery shop, do laundry,

learn a new language and stay on top of the kids's school work. This ain't gonna be a vacation.

Like I said way back in the very first post of this blog, before you know it, time for "Adventures" such as this will be over. The chance for experiencing something truly unique will have passed us by. We will get busier, kids will get older, priorities will change. We have a chance to do something as a family that we will remember for a lifetime and we are going for it. Stayed tuned, this is gonna be good.

... And Just Like That, We Are On Our Way

It happened so fast. We have been going, not going, going, not going for the better part of two years and suddenly we have a place to live, work and a plan developing based on reality not what we hoped might happen. I advertised on Sayulita Life Classifieds just to test the waters and received a response from a homeowner who was happy to rent his new purchase to us. Casa Estrella

is where we will be and he has generously agreed to let me work out of the garage at the house. Perfect. A little far from town for the kids to walk home but a home we could basically just bring our bags to and start living. Not to mention the place and view is more than we could have hoped for. We've been running fast to get our own home fixed up, cleaned up and rented by the end of September. I've been busy making new contacts and recontacting folks who have asked about what I do in the last year and I already have some potential work lined up. So much to do, so little time.

Wait A Minute...Again

Just when we think we may have it finally figured out, things go in a different direction. The owners of the hopeful properties we would take care of were not so sure of our committment to come down so they decided to go with folks who were already down there. Can't say that I blame them for that decision but it sure changes our outlook as far as what we can handle when it comes to expenses. Also, the family we had hoped to rent from found someone to rent their home. Considering the gardening upkeep, rent and size of the home it may be for the better but the location would have been fantastic. So, now we have all the flexibility to make things work for us on our schedule and not when someone needs to have us down there to start or move in. Pushing on with Mountain Wave in the US for now. Just stopped snowing a couple days ago and it's June. In a couple months it could be snowing again. Hopefully we can figure this out by the fall.

Are Things Lining Up?

We've been home from our month in Sayulita for a couple weeks and a few things happened along the way which make us think that the move may be meant to be. First, we were introduced to Summer Helms and were able to rent her palapa for the month. Summer and her family just happen to be leaving Sayulita for Hawaii this summer for 1 to 3 years. They have a house to rent in a great part of town and a property management business up and running. Though summertime may be a bit early, the idea of stepping into a situation where we know the landlords of a house for rent and a money making business to take over makes this whole ideas much easier to swallow. I may even have the beginnings of a concrete job lined up. Put all these things together and the situation looks good. Certainly better than just landing in town and asking myself "now what?". Summer's husband even has a surfboard factory for rent that could be used for concrete. A bit too pricey but it's out there and available. Too good? We'll see. Nothing is for certain since we have to interview with the property owners to see if they even feel comfortable with us taking over. Anyway, great exposure for Mountain Wave while we were there and many people seem to have heard of us. If one wants to see the blog of our trip, check out "A Month in Sayulita" tab at the top of the page.

A Coming Out Event?

Tonight is the Grupo Pro Sayulita's Fiesta Fund Raiser. It will be our coming out party for Mountain Wave Concrete here in the area. We are donating a custom sink and it will be auctioned off during the LIVE auction component of the party. Will we hear bids or crickets? People evidently come from all over for this event so I hopefully will be talking concrete with lots of folks. Could be a real great start or it could be an embarrassing disaster. Lost sleep over it last night.

Sometimes It Just Doesn't Matter How Much Planning You Do

It was just one of those moments. We had planned, packed, traveled, prepared and left for our month long "Adventure" in Mexico. We arrived at the airport and Ashley looked at me and asked me where the bag with the passports was. I looked at her and thought she had to be kidding. She wasn't. The most important bag on the trip was sitting in a bedroom back at the house. A speed record trip back up to Park City and back, some persuasive discussion by Ashley with the ticket agent bought us some time and we checked in 20 minutes before the flight left. If we didn't make this flight we had no idea when we might get here. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much planning one does, things can still go wrong. Maybe a lesson learned for future adventures.